Dominion: The Power of Man, the
Suffering of Animals, and the Call to MercyCommentary by Dawn Watch
KarenDawn@DawnWatch.com
13 Jun 2002

Subject: DawnWatch: New Republic Article on vegetarian presidentialspeechwriter's new book

In the June 17 issue of the New Republic, Ryan Lizza'a column, White HouseWatch (page 12), is headed "Food Fight." It is about Matthew Scully,senior speechwriter to President Bush, and the upcoming release of his firstbook, "Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call toMercy."

Unfortunately, the article is not available on line. I will tell you alittle about it and you may be inspired to pick up the magazine.

The article is a fun read, beginning,"Matthew Scully, senior speechwriter to the president and surely thehighest-ranking vegetarian in the notoriously carnivorous Bushadministration, is looking skeptically at the menu. We're dining at aliberal hangout a few blocks north of the White House that I had mistakenlyassumed would offer a plethora of vegetarian options. 'They serve vealhere,' Scully says with a mischievous grin. 'I'm leaving.'"

Scully says that he is not an animal rights activist:"For Scully, it's precisely because animals don't have the same rights ashumans--because they are unequal and powerless--that we have a specialresponsibility to be good shepherds. The goal of Dominion is to turn thedebate over the treatment of animals into a debate about mercy, to save itfrom the secular left through an explicitly theological appeal."

(Interestingly - some of the founders of what is commonly called the animalrights movement do not argue the case for animal protection, vegetarianismor even animal liberation on the basis of rights.)

Scully goes for the theological appeal even though he is not a churchgoer.He says, "It's not hard to convince a Christian that he or she can do betterin his or her life." On a more personal note he says, "I see the hand of myown Maker when I look at every creature."

Lizza tells us that Scully "writes unsparingly about the managers and ownersof America's brutal factory hog farms, several of whom are significant Bushbackers and six-figure donors to the Republican Party. " Scully calls hogpens, "concentration camps."

We learn that Scully will leave the White House administration this week.Lizza writes, "... on Scully's final day at the White House, Bush will bespeaking before the 14th Annual World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa.Scullywas not asked to help write the speech."

This article provides a great opening for letters to the editor of the NewRepublic regarding animal rights or animal welfare - on how much better wecould be doing as a nation or as a species with regard to the way we treatother animals. The New Republic takes letters at:
tnr@aol.com

Always include your full name, address, and telephone number when writingaletter to the editor.

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues inthe media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets.
You can learn more about it at
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